Vice President JD Vance scrapped his trip to Switzerland at the last minute. The sudden cancellation has cast doubt over what comes next for the Iran deal. The decision came just hours after Vance publicly defended the preliminary agreement during a White House briefing.
JD Vance’s trip to Switzerland cancelled
Hours before the cancellation, JD Vance told reporters he still intended to make the trip. “My plan is to go to Switzerland,” he said, though he acknowledged he did not know “exactly when.” He expected technical negotiations to kick off “sometime this weekend,” but left the door open for things to shift.
By Thursday evening, the White House pulled the plug. It cited unresolved logistics as the reason, saying the delegation had been “prepared to depart at the first available opportunity” but that the talks were simply not ready. Iran reportedly cancelled its own delegation’s flight the same day, citing ongoing Israeli strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Switzerland trip was already part of a messy week. The US had initially planned a signing ceremony in Geneva for Friday. Iran’s Foreign Ministry then announced its president had signed the memorandum of understanding digitally, making a formal ceremony unnecessary. Donald Trump signed the document a second time on Wednesday night at the Palace of Versailles after first signing it digitally on Sunday before flying back to Washington in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The deal itself covers a 60-day window to finalise an agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme and lifts the US naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz. But it leaves Iran’s uranium stockpile untouched, an issue Vance was specifically heading to Switzerland to begin negotiating.
Despite the setback, the White House said it looks forward to starting technical talks “as soon as possible.” Vance has said he plans to personally lead the US negotiating team. No new travel date has been confirmed.
(Source: The New York Times)
